


five people who hugged michelle

by flying_snowmen



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Sex, lol i'm so sorry for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 14:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11876568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flying_snowmen/pseuds/flying_snowmen
Summary: Peter is very distressing as a person to Michelle for various reasons. Sometimes, she just needs a hug because of this.Or, a fic in which Michelle gets jealous, has her identity dismissed, worries about Peter, and realizes she wants to marry this boy.





	five people who hugged michelle

  1. gwen stacy



When Michelle is a freshman in college, she has a bit of a crisis. She and Peter have been best friends for around two years now, and she’s been nursing a healthy crush on him for a bit longer than that. And in their whole friendship/crush existence, Peter has only ever liked one girl: Liz Toomes. (Which, if she’s being honest, Michelle probably had a crush on Liz too. So she gets it.) This is all a roundabout way of her saying that she’s been able to have a crush on Peter Parker and not do anything about it because their relationship to each other and mostly to other people always stayed the same.

But in their freshman year of college, Peter Parker gets a lab partner for intro physics. She seems like a kind, genuine, funny, good person. She’s friendly and intelligent. And whenever Michelle makes the trek to MIT to join Peter for lunch before lab, Gwen always asks how she’s doing and takes a genuine interest in MJ and her life. So, Gwen Stacy is exactly Peter’s type (if Liz is a crush to go by), and MJ has a mini crisis about it.

Peter and Gwen don’t start dating though. At least not for the first month or so of school. But MJ is worried. And then one Wednesday while she’s doodling in the middle of her freshman seminar (it focuses on human rights and MJ is actually a big fan of the class, but That Kid™ is speaking right now and he’s absolutely insufferable), she feels her pocket buzz. It’s a text from Peter.

_the dork pedro: hey, are you free for dinner tonight_

She schools her expression so as not to give anything away while her professor gets into a debate with Kid™ about how his point, while there is some argument to be said for it, is actually irrelevant in the real world and only works in a hypothetical world where greed and selfishness doesn’t exist.

                  _michelle “if you save my name with any emojis I’ll murder you” jones: yeah sure, 6:30? I’ve got class until 6._

Then her best friend in the class, Jenna (bless her soul), is speaking up to note that the readings actually don’t support Kid™’s ideas and suggest that there needs to be a more active effort on the part of society to correct wrongdoings and hold people accountable.

                  _the dork pedro: sounds good_ _J_ _meet at my dorm room_

Michelle doesn’t realize until after class that she spends the rest of it smiling. Jenna punches her in the arm and laughs at the expression on MJ’s face. “What’s got you all smiley and happy?” Jenna knows about Peter. At least, she knows that MJ’s half in love with him and has been since sophomore year of high school. Jenna also knows, at least she claims that she knows, that Peter Parker is head over heels in love with Michelle and if they don’t start dating before the end of this year then Jenna will shave her head.

“I’m getting dinner with Peter tonight.” MJ tries to act nonchalant about the whole matter because they’ve gotten dinner in the past. It shouldn’t be a big deal. But then Jenna’s face lights up and she grabs MJ’s shoulders and starts jumping up and down.

“Tonight’s the night! I feel it!” And MJ starts laughing, shaking her head and starting to walk away with a smile on her face. “Tell me how it goes, MJ!”

“Yeah, yeah.” She says over her shoulder. “Now go to class!” But when Jenna whistles loudly down the hall, MJ just smiles and skips for a second before walking to her next class.

And if Michelle puts on her nicest pair of jeans and uses her hands to brush her hair so it’s a little neater, well, no one can prove that. (Except her roommate who just laughs when she changes her shirt, but her roommate is sworn to secrecy so good luck getting that information from her.) MJ walks a little more quickly to Peter’s dorm. (It usually takes her about forty minutes to walk the two miles, but she does it in thirty tonight.)

She practically jumps up the stairs to his room and when she notices the door is slightly ajar, she pushes it open without a second thought because this is around the time he was expecting her. And then she sees Gwen. She’s sitting next to Peter on his bed and she has her arm around his shoulders and when she glances up to see MJ, she jumps. “MJ!”

But before either of them can say anything else, MJ is backing away, apologizing quietly before she runs out the dorm and down the stairs. She can’t really get very far because it’s dark and her tears are making everything blurry. So she settles onto a bench near the dorm in a small brick alcove. She pulls her knees up onto the bench and wraps her arms around them, feeling stupid as she lets her head fall between her knees. This is dumb. She’s dumb. She knew it was coming. She shouldn’t have been surprised.

“MJ?” While MJ likes Gwen well enough, she is the last person on earth she wants to talk to right now. (Well, second to last.) But Gwen sits next to her on the bench anyway because she refuses to take a hint when MJ doesn’t even look up. “I know saying ‘it’s not what it looks like’ feels like a lame excuse, but it’s true.”

Michelle takes a deep breath and looks up at Gwen, not caring that her tear-stained cheeks give away how much she cares. “I’m happy for the two of you, honestly. I just,” she sighs. _God_ , this is the worst.

“You love him.” At Michelle’s shocked face, Gwen continues. “You’re not subtle. Neither is he, you know.” When MJ’s brows draw together in confusion, Gwen laughs. She has the decency to look sheepish when MJ scowls. “I’m sorry, it’s just that you two are so bad at this. He and I aren’t dating, okay? I’m gay.”

And, _fuck_. Honestly, how could MJ be so heteronormative? She’s bi for crying out loud! The only other person MJ sees Gwen with is that one girl Alex. She saw them holding hands once! God, MJ feels ridiculous. Gwen just puts her hand on MJ’s knee and chuckles. “We spend half the time during lab talking about his massive crush on you and how he plans to woo you. Tonight was supposed to be a special night.” Michelle’s eyes widen and Gwen smiles warmly. “I told him to stay in his room because I figured he’d mess this up somehow because he’s clueless, but you probably already knew that.”

Michelle doesn’t really know how to feel right now but she puts her legs back on the ground and pulls Gwen into a hug. She whispers quietly into Gwen’s hair, “thank you.” Gwen rubs her back and squeezes her a bit more tightly.

“I’m the one who should be thanking you. Hopefully now I don’t have to listen to how you’re never going like Peter the way he likes you.” Michelle pulls back with a laugh, wiping her cheeks and opening her eyes wide, trying to get rid of any residual tears. “Now go find him, please.”

Michelle smiles, standing up and thanking her one last time before sprinting back to his room. He’s sitting on his bed, face in his hands and shoulders sagging. MJ walks over and sits down next to him, hugging him tightly when he looks up at her. His arms wrap slowly around her waist and it’s a bit uncomfortable hugging while they’re sitting down but his warmth is intoxicating.

She pulls back slightly. “So, I hear you want to be my boyfriend.” Peter flushes, his ears turning red and his eyes widening. He looks too adorable, so Michelle just rests her hand lightly against his cheek. “Kiss me if yes.”

Peter leans in and their lips brush. It’s short and nothing too spectacular, but they’re both smiling and afterward Peter pulls her back into a hug, burying his face in her neck and kissing it softly. Michelle can’t contain the butterflies that are flapping around in her stomach. She finds she doesn’t really want to, either.

  1. liz toomes



Michelle loves Liz Toomes. She’s one of her closest friends. After Liz moved to Oregon in Michelle’s sophomore year, they started talking more. Michelle would keep Liz updated on decathlon and ask her questions. Liz would tell Michelle about Oregon and being the new kid and tease MJ about her crush on Peter.

So when Liz tells MJ that she’s going to be in Boston for a conference next week, MJ is understandably very excited. Since Liz and Peter are fairly good friends now, the three of them arrange to get dinner together. Michelle is excited. _Honestly,_ she is. But, there’s still a part of her that gets a little self-conscious. Because Peter and Liz joke around and Liz is so bubbly and alive and outgoing and charming and all these things that Michelle’s never cared to be nor has she wanted to be. 

It’s not that Michelle doesn’t think she’s a pretty awesome person. Nor does she want to change who she is because of what she thinks Peter might want. She knows her loves her. She knows they’re happy. But she worries that Peter wants someone like Liz sometimes. That he might be happier with someone more like Liz. Which, she knows, is _dumb_. But she can’t help but feel sometimes as if he’s with him because they’re friends and they were attracted to each other and it was convenient and made sense.

Which is why she’s a little off at dinner. She’s a bit quieter and Peter and Liz joke together and MJ doesn’t contribute all that often. When Peter goes to the restroom, Liz turns and levels her with a serious look. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Michelle tries to play it off. She knows that it’s a lame response and that Liz will not accept it. Which is why Liz just raises one eyebrow and keeps looking at Michelle with the same look on her face. And MJ is trying to be more open and honest because Peter always says he never really knows what she’s thinking. So, MJ sighs and closes her eyes so she doesn’t have to look at Liz when she says something she _knows_ Liz is going to disapprove of. “I get worried that I’m not going to be enough for him.”

She opens one of her eyes slightly so she can peak at Liz, but she doesn’t look incredulous and Fed Up™ like she had thought. She’s just smiling, warm and gentle. She reaches out and puts her hand on Michelle’s shoulder. “In all the years I’ve known Peter, I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. It’s like you hung the moon and he’s going to spend every day worshipping the ground you walk on. He absolutely _adores_ you, okay?”

Michelle pulls Liz into a hug so she doesn’t accidentally start crying in this restaurant. “Thank you for telling me I’m being dumb.”

Liz chuckles. “Of course, MJ.”

They’re still hugging when Peter walks back and he laughs a bit, asking, “I was gone for like five minutes. What happened?”

Michelle and Liz pull back from their hug, grinning at each other. MJ turns to Peter and kisses him on the cheek. “Nothing to worry about, loser.” He shakes his head and scoffs, but his cheeks are slightly pink so she figures Liz is right about everything, so she should trust her on this one.

  1. may parker



At the end of their first semester sophomore year, Michelle and Peter start to struggle a bit. He’s going off on missions a lot more frequently and he’s starting to fall behind and it feels too similar to the beginning of sophomore year in high school and Michelle doesn’t want to feel like they’ve gone _back_. Michelle sees him less often, and it wouldn’t usually be an issue because they both get busy. But it’s been a week since she’s seen him and when they text the conversations are short. She reads online that Spiderman has been particularly active in the last two weeks, and Michelle doesn’t want to be upset, but she is. Hell, they haven’t even had sex in, like, a month. Which, for them, is a _really_ long time.

It’s more than just the sex, though. Michelle misses Peter. She misses watching movies with him on the couch and cuddling when she’s particularly stressed. She misses him trying to make tea and failing, somehow, even though it’s honestly not that hard and we’ve talked about this three times this past week. She misses talking to him right before they go to bed and stealing food from his plate and having tickle fights. She misses him posing for her doodles and holding him when he cries after a particularly bad dream. She misses him. But she’s also upset at him.

So, over Christmas break when they’re both back in New York, when she arrives at his house to give him his present (which may or may not include a blowjob if she’s feeling generous and also maybe because she wants to have sex with her boyfriend because it’s been so long) and he’s not at his house, she scowls a bit.

May smiles, but Michelle knows that she’s also concerned. Despite this, she laughs. “Normally, I’d be offended at seeing someone so disappointed to see me!”

Michelle sighs, frowning a bit. She’s tired. Really, she is. “I’m sorry, May. You know I love you.”

May just puts her hand on Michelle’s shoulder and guides her inside. “I know. Come on it. He’ll hopefully be back within the hour.” May closes the door once Michelle is inside and directs her to the kitchen table. She walks into the kitchen and puts the kettle on the stove. “You like earl grey, right?”

Michelle smiles, nodding slightly. They’re silent while the water heats up and then the kettle screams and May brings over two mugs. Michelle lifts the tea bag up and down, watching the color spread in the water. They chat about how school’s been and what May’s been doing. She’s dating someone new. Michelle congratulates her. But then it’s been forty-five minutes and Peter’s not back. May reaches over and grabs Michelle’s hand. “Tell me what’s going on.”

That’s hard. Because Michelle doesn’t fully know herself, but she’s sad and upset and frustrated. But she loves him so much. “I miss him.” That’s really it, isn’t it? He’s not around anymore and she misses waking up and having him wrapped in her arms. “It feels like he’s always gone now. I just…miss talking to him and doing little things with him. It feels like I’m not as important as I used to be.” She leaves out the part where she misses sex, but it doesn’t really matter at this point, she doesn’t think. Besides, while she loves May dearly, she has no interest in discussing her sex life with the woman.

“ _Tell_ him.” May says it as if it’s all that simple. Michelle doesn’t want him to feel like he has to choose. Doesn’t want to make him feel like he has to give up this part of his life. May continues on despite the look Michelle is sure she’s giving May. “He cares about you. _A lot_. He will listen. It’s not unfair to tell him how you feel.”

Then there’s a crash in his room and he’s home. He comes out a few minutes later in his pajamas and gulps when he sees them. He looks a little worse for wear, but he’s okay. May stands, saying she’s going to spend the night with her girlfriend. She walks over the give Peter a kiss on the cheek. She hugs Michelle tightly before she leaves and whispers into her ear, “Be brave enough to be vulnerable.”

Then she’s gone and neither she nor Peter says anything for a moment. But Michelle takes a deep breath and quickly spits out, “I miss you.” He looks like he chokes on anything he was going to say and walks over, sitting next to her and grabbing her hands. Somehow this empowers her and she continues. “I feel like we don’t see each other or talk anymore. I miss just sitting next to you and doing homework. I miss laughing with you.” She looks down, blushing slightly. “I miss sex with you.”

He laughs, leaning in and kissing her cheek. “I’m sorry.” He kisses her forehead. “I love you.” He kisses her nose. “I miss you.” And then he kisses her mouth and she wraps her arms around his shoulders and pulls him tightly to her. It’s weird, sitting in their respective chairs and kissing. But it feels like deliverance so she doesn’t really care.

She’s smiling when he pulls back slightly. She glances down and runs her hand up his thigh. HE chokes on air a bit and she laughs. “I actually came here to give you your Christmas presents.”

“Presents?” He squeaks out and his voice is a couple octaves too high. She just smiles, feeling like a vixen when she slides off her chair to kneel on the floor in front of him. She yanks open his pajama bottoms and he gulps, head tilting back as he whispers out a quick, “Jesus _Christ_.”

She laughs again when he looks back at her, looking absolutely wrecked when she hasn’t even done anything yet. “Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot.”

  1. ned leeds



Michelle is absolutely livid right now. She’s wound so tight she’s going to snap at the next person who says a single word to her. She was at the meeting for queer students on campus when she encountered a woman who looked at her, confused and slightly upset. “Wait, don’t you have a boyfriend?”

Michelle had sighed. She had been asked this a couple times over the last few meetings. “Yeah, I’m bi.”

The woman just raised one eyebrow. “But you’re in a straight relationship.” And she’d already had a long day and she didn’t want to deal with someone implying she wasn’t gay enough to be at their queer meetings. So she’d picked up her backpack and stormed out. She didn’t care what this woman thought of her, she just needed to get out of that room.

She walks the mile to Peter’s apartment quickly because she’s about to burst into tears and she doesn’t want to do that in public. She just wants to see her boyfriend and hug him because she feels so fucking e _xhausted_. But when she knocks on the door, he’s not ther. Ned answers because he’s visiting this weekend and then Michelle bursts into tears and Ned pulls her into the apartment and gives her a hug.

They stand like that for a couple minutes. Ned’s rubbing her back in soothing circles and whispering assurances to her. When the tears become less all consuming, Ned pulls back and asks, “what’s going on?”

Michelle takes a deep breath, trying to stop her tears. “A girl implied I wasn’t gay enough to be at a queer meeting.” And then her tears come more forcefully again and Ned pulls her back into a hug. Her shoulders shake and she buries her face into his neck, not caring that his shirt’s probably very wet on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, MJ. Oh my goodness.” He guides her to the kitchen counter and sits her down on the bar stool. He sits next to her and keeps rubbing circles on her back. “I’m sorry she was trying to erasure your identity.” Michelle just nods, taking deep breaths as her heart stops racing so quickly. “It’s not the same, but sometimes I feel like people don’t really accept my demisexuality. Like, I’m on the ace spectrum but some people don’t want to acknowledge that. Like, especially since I’ve found Betty. It’s hard because everyone just assumes I’m in a perfectly straight hetero relationship. And I go to queer meetings and people are always just like, ‘oh cool, an ally!’ And I want to shout, ‘I’m not an ally! I’m queer!’” He pauses, eyebrows furrowing. “Not that I wouldn’t be an ally. I don’t actually know what I’m saying right now but I should probably stop.”

Michelle laughs and hugs him tightly again. Ned’s her best friend too. She loves him. “You’re such a dork, Ned. I love you.” They hug until Peter comes home and she’s still crying a bit. When Peter notices, he rushes over and she pulls away from Ned to hug Peter. Because she missed him and she loves him too and he always knows how to make her feel better.

Peter guides her to the couch and covers her with a blanket. He kisses her on the head and then walks back into the kitchen to find Ned putting a kettle on the stove. “What happened?”

“Someone implied she was straight.” And oh god. This has happened too many times to count since she’d started dating Peter and he feels so badly. So when he walks back into the living room with a mug of chamomile tea (because it’s her favorite and it puts her right to bed and she needs her sleep), he pops the DVD for _Frida_ into the DVD player. Michelle claps her hands together and smiles when she accepts the mug from Peter.

Peter slides underneath her so she’s laying her head on his lap and when Ned comes over she lifts her legs before resting them on his lap. She dozes off almost instantly, Peter rubbing circles on her temples. Her last thoughts as she starts to drift are that she loves these boys and the family they’ve become for her. 

  1. peter parker



It’s a week before graduation. Michelle is freaking out a bit. But she feels like she shouldn’t be. Because on all accounts, her life is pretty great. She’s going to Columbia to get her masters next year. Peter’s going to be working for Stark Industries in New York so they’ll be able to stay together. Her brother is moving to Jersey so he’ll be close. She and Peter are going to May’s wedding this summer. Ned’s going to fucking Stanford for medical school next year. Things are awesome, so she shouldn’t be freaking out.

But the other day one of the women who worked in her office proposed to her boyfriend. And it got MJ. Because she started thinking about Peter. She loves Peter. They’re going to be living together in New York. And MJ always hated the idea of marriage as a kid, but when she thinks about calling Peter her husband, her heart does little flips.

And it’s all she’s been able to think about for the past week. While everyone is panicking about moving to a new city or going to grad school or wondering what they’re going to do after college, Michelle has been sitting back, panicking because she’s in love with her boyfriend and she might want to marry him. She might want to marry him soon. She always thought she wouldn’t get married until her thirties. Because she was going to develop her career and settle into her life before settling down in that regard. But she and Peter have been dating for two years and they’ve already settled into each other. It’s not as if much would change. They’d just get tax breaks.

So MJ decides to call her older sister. But it’s one in the morning and she wakes her up and she’s not happy about it. “MJ, I swear to god if this isn’t an emergency, I’m going to kill you.”

“I think I want to marry Peter.”

Her sister doesn’t say anything for a moment. Then, slowly, as if she’s worried Michelle won’t understand: “And that’s a problem because…?" 

And there’s the rub. There isn’t a problem, not really. She and Peter are doing well. She thinks they’re going to continue to do well. They plan their lives around being with each other now. She’s happy with him. It wouldn’t be a stretch if they were to get married. “I…I don’t know.”

Her sister sighs and Michelle can practically see her rubbing her hands over her eyes. “MJ, look, I don’t know why you’re scared. I don’t know if you’re worried you aren’t ready because you’re only twenty-two or if you think he’s not going to say yes or if there’s some other wild reason you think you shouldn’t ask Peter to spend the rest of his life with you. But if you want my take on things, I think if you decide you do _want_ this, then you should ask. Because there’s no reality in which he doesn’t say yes and there’s no reality in which he isn’t happy with you.”

Her sister can’t see the smile on her face, so MJ manages to laugh despite the tears forming and says with a waver in her voice, “Thank you.”

The laugh on the other end of the phone is comforting still, even though Michelle is sure it’s at her expense. “Now can I go to sleep or is there an existential crisis I need to work through with you?” MJ laughs, thanks her sister, and they say their good nights. Before she hangs up, her sister says, “Congratulations, by the way. In advance.” And then her sister hangs up the phone. So, Michelle makes up her mind and that is that.

Then the issue becomes how does she ask? She knows she wants it to be private, like so many things with them are. But she also wants it to be special. Because he means a lot to her and she wants him to know she put a lot of thought into this.

Which is how she ends up waking up at three in the morning and heading to the kitchen the day before his graduation date. (She graduated a few weeks ago, but has stayed in Boston for his.) She steals one of his mugs and paints the words _marry me?_ at the bottom. (She’d seen the image on Pinterest a few years back and thought it was cool.)

She wakes up slightly earlier than him and makes breakfast. Omelettes with prosciutto and spinach, his favorite. (She thinks it’s _eh_ , but it’s easy to make and he groans after each bite and it makes her hot and heavy. They usually end up having sex afterward, but today she can’t do that. Well, at least not _immediately_.)

When he finally stumbles out of his bedroom and sees the omelette on his plate, he gasps. “Babe.” He walks over and hugs her tightly, kissing her on the cheek. “You’re the greatest.” She laughs, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him onto the bar stool.

“Now sit and eat before your graduation.” She puts a plate in front of him and hands him the coffee mug. She’s i _ncredibly_ nervous. And she does her best not to stare each time he takes a sip of his coffee. She was worried he wouldn’t want to finish it so she didn’t put all that much in it.

She’s in the middle of talking about which color they should paint their bedroom walls in their apartment in New York when he takes a sip and then stares down at the bottom of his mug. She stops talking without realizing and he stares up at her. He tilts the coffee mug toward her and raises one of his eyebrows in question.

She bites her lip, looking down at the kitchen counter. Then she glances back up, smiling despite the nerves. “Wanna get married?” She asks, keeping her voice as steady as possible. “To me?”

And Peter jumps up so quickly the bar stool falls back but then he’s wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and lifting her up and spinning her around. She shrieks, even though it’s eight am and their neighbor works the night shift. (They’ll give him a pie later.)

He sets her down and kisses her smack on the lips. It’s sloppy and they both have morning breath but it might be the greatest kiss she’s ever had. “In case I wasn’t clear, yes.” Peter pulls her back into a hug. “A thousand times yes.” He starts kissing her neck and her jaw and MJ’s heart beats a mile a minute because she and Peter are going to get _married_.

Then Peter’s hand goes down her pants and she gasps, pulling at his wrist. “Peter, you’re going to be late for your graduation!”

He just kisses her and bites her ear before whispering, “my fiancé just proposed to me. Graduation can wait.” And his voice is really deep and husky and Michelle’s still turned on because Peter kept moaning after each bite of his omelette.

He smirks and continues on and Michelle throws her head back and moans. God, she’s so excited to call Peter her husband. And she tells him this. Many times. And Peter is only, like, ten minutes late for graduation. He’d kissed her cheek before he ran off and whispered into her ear, “It was worth it.”

_God_ , she’s so in love with this dork.

**Author's Note:**

> hey! so, serious time. i was recently in a car accident (no one was hurt!) and i haven't really been able to write anything i've liked since? i wrote probably six different takes on this fic before settling on this one, because i kind of like it. i'm not entirely satisfied with it, but it was enough that i felt okay to post. so if this sounded a bit different or off or all over the place or just wasn't as good, that's why. (but you gotta keep writing!!) anYWAY. i hope this brought some entertainment and that you have a good day!! :)


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